Epilogue

Uina watched as her family was cornered in a ravine. She looked toward the great white wolf standing beside her. "...Aniu?" She asked.
The great wolf looked down at the earth below and sighed.
Uina looked back to the Earth from her place on the clouds high above and saw the enemy growing closer. "...Aniu, we must do something!" She cried. "They are getting closer!"
Aniu looked at her. "I am sorry my child, but we have not received word to intervene, we must stand our ground."
Uina shook her head. "No! We cannot, you cannot expect me to just sit here and watch them die when I can stop them!"
Aniu sighed. "Such things are meant to happen my child. It is not ours to interfere simply because we can."
"...but they are my family!" Uina cried. Her wings ruffled in anxiety.
Aniu turned an locked eyes with Uina. "Stand. Down. Uina." Aniu said, emphasizing each word.
Uina shook her head. "They are my family!" She screamed. Then she swung her paw at Aniu.
Aniu's head shattered into millions of pinpricks of white light. Time seemed to slow and then the world around Uina shattered as well. The pieces began to swirl around and around a single point and then to disolve into blackness until Uina was swallowed up by it.

Uina opened her eyes. She blinked a few times and rolled over and to her paws. She stood in a stone chamber. There were many other wolves lying, sleeping in the chamber. They tossed and turned as if in the midst of terrible nightmares. Uina's white fur glistened and her wings folded behind her. She walked out of the chamber and into a long hall.
Quickly two hunters swiveled to face her. These creatures patrolled Shade's labyrinth and destroyed those who roamed it, only so they could wake up and be chased down again. They had three heads of a wolf, a body of wolf with legs as a scorpion and a long tail that arched over their back, ending in a dreadful blade. The hunter's stood at twice the stature of a good sized wolf. The left hunter growled and spit a fire ball from one of each of it's mouths. The fire balls fanned out over the hallway.
Uina easily dodged them and ran at the hunters. A bright blue light began to glow in her eyes.
The right hunter raised it's insect like legs and fired them at her, long ropes of red tendon snaking out behind the penetrating points.
Uina jumped and turned on her side. She spread her wings wide and swooped close to the wall.
Two of the spikes hit the floor and quickly began to retract back to their owner. The other two were aimed higher and Uina had to flare her wings again, flipping over upside down so that she was flying along the ceiling of the hall to dodge them. They clanked harmlessly into the rock wall.
Uina extended her legs and her paws met the ceiling of the hall. She ran along the ceiling, gaining speed and flapping her wings. The white wolf grinned at her attackers and the blue light flared once.
A pinprick of blue light appeared on the chest of the hunter nearest her. The blue light grew and then suddenly jumped to meet the blue light emanating from Uina's eyes. A blinding pulse of blue shot down the beam and hit the hunter. More pinpricks appeared on the hunter and more beams of light jumped to meet Uina.
Nearly thirty of these beams struck the hunter before it fell, great smoking holes in it's body.
Uina grinned "Let's see Aniu do that." She thought. "If she only knew what her powers were capable of. If she only had the will to bend them to do hers." Uina flared her wings once more and flipped back around to land her paws on the floor. She ran as fast as she could toward the hunter.
The hunter rared back his tail and the dangerous blade shot out of the end of it.
Uina saw the blade rushing toward her and time seemed to slow. Her wings beat slowly, each hair on her body lifted and fell with each beat. She half closed her eyes, then at just the right second she leapt in the air and landed atop the blade. As she fell to the ground she turned and threw her whole body sideways. Her paws glowed with a blue aura and the blade shot forward, burying itself into the hunter's chest, burrowing through it and bursting out the other side.
The great hunter looked down as if dumbfounded at what had just happened. Then he sank to the floor of the hall, unmoving.
Uina leapt to her paws and ran at the end of the hall It was a solid wall with a path to either side, but Uina knew better. She closed her eyes and passed through the wall with ease.
Uina opened her eyes and saw a wide eyed Shade standing before her.
"...Uina, you're here... and you're awake." He said.
Uina nodded and stepped forward. "Yes I am... father." She said.
Shade nodded. "Well... good to see you again." He said.
Uina nodded. "Oh sure papa, nice to see you too... after you banished me to earth for 500 years. Do you know what it is like to live down there for so long?"
Shade frowned. "Only one blessed of Aniu herself could have killed you and returned you here."
Uina nodded. "One of your own, Steele himself."
Shade frowned further. "I did what I did... for your own good... my daughter."
Uina shook her head. "No, you did what you did to protect your own skin, and it is high time someone with more backbone took charge. This pathetic truce with Aniu is over."
Shade shook his head. "There are reasons for the truce." He said. "You do not understand..."
"...be gone!" Uina cried. The pinprick of blue light lit on Shade's chest and the bright blue beam jumped in an instant to meet Uina's glowing eyes. The pulse of energy that flew from her burst into Shade's chest and threw him backward through the air and off of his tower.
Uina walked to the edge and watched as Shade tumbled through the air for several minutes before crashing into the pool of lava at the base of the tower.
She laughed and walked to the center of the tower, embers of fire floating through the air around her. She looked up and smiled with a hateful gleam in her eye. "Sure it's easy to watch strangers you don't even care about suffer and die, but how will you do when it's your own clan. Will you have the strength of will to follow your own orders then Aniu? Can you watch them die?" She laughed. "I doubt it."

Uina's face shimmered as if a ripple in a pond.
Aniu stood in a stand of short green grass on the edge of a large pond. In the water of the pond the image of Uina laughing could still be seen.
Aniu closed her eyes and another tear rolled out of her eyes to the end of her muzzle and then dropped off to land in the water below, causing another ripple.
Autumn stood beside his mate and sighed.
The image in the pool shimmered and two more joined it, one of the Talbourne in their cave, and the other of Aleu and Solaris journeying through the forest.
"They're not ready..." Aniu said.
Autumn sighed and looked at mate. "...could they ever be ready?" He asked.
Aniu shook her head. "No, no they never could be, not for what's coming."

THE END